Celebrating Breakthroughs

Episode #1 Charts on Apple Podcasts!

In this week’s Newsletter:

• Podcast in the Apple Podcast Charts!

• Some encouraging words on starting new things

• Finding motivation from internal values, not outcomes

Watch the Podcast HERE!

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Dear friends,

Last week my new Podcast launched on all streaming platforms internationally. I’ve been bamboozled by what’s happened since.

A life in the Arts has taught me: give with love, but never expect.

Freeing myself from expectations has forged the durability to play the long game.

Detaching from outcomes has bought me freedom from the roller coaster of chance.

Instead, I try to:

• commit to the next thing

• do it as well as I can

• ship it

Then you keep going, irrespective of the vagaries of the world.

We live in the fantasy of the goal; the outcome which will herald arrival, the treasure which awaits at the end of the rainbow.

And it leaves many feeling not quite good enough.

We wanted something and we worked hard for it, but it never arrived as we hoped.

Our inner voice says:

“Dam, what was it about me that never quite fit?”

I’ve found that if you need validity from the world in everything you do, you are always emotionally dependent on conditions you can’t control:

• luck

• a crowded marketplace

• that sometimes the world is busy

• or just plain indifferent

Developing a joyous indifference allows you to navigate both challenges and successes without losing yourself.

Your internal architecture is thus:

1. Your value centre

2. Persistence

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts."

Winston Churchill

With all this: we must celebrate when good things happen!

For my first 20 years in the Arts, I’ve been reticent to yell about good things. It comes from the British inclination not to want to talk about yourself.

And yet recently I’ve been spending a lot of time with Americans and younger creators.

I’ve learnt two things:

1. That the people who support you want to celebrate your breakthroughs.

2. In the digital age, you need to plant your flag firmly.

And so this week, dear friends, good things happened!

I am genuinely baffled by how, but the Podcast charted in the Apple Podcast Charts and has been listened to in over 25 countries worldwide!

Learning it’s been downloaded from El Salvador to India, Brazil to Benin has been both surreal and rewarding.

Most of all though, it’s made me happy that people are enjoying the wonderful conversation I was lucky enough to have with Karthik Puvvada.

Thank you for helping give the Podcast such a great start! ❤️

If you’d like to help further, then forwarding the Podcast to friends via email is greatly appreciated.

Finally, my takeaways from the week:

1. Find motivation from internal values, not outcomes

2. Celebrate breakthroughs

3. Let go of expectation; be persistent

With love & thanks,

Jim

(from my Twitter which I rejoined after 10 years)

ps. something I wrote recently while questioning my path: